Lookout scores $150M to secure enterprise mobile apps

Lookout, the mobile security vendor that has seen good traction in the consumer market, now has $150 million in fresh funding from big-name backers to ease that transition.

As mobile devices become the gadgets of choice for many tasks — including banking and business workflow — the need to secure them is growing, hence the big wave of M&A deals around identity and access management.

This round included contributions from new investors including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Wellington Management, and Goldman Sachs. And it follows a $55 million round last fall from Deutsch Telekom and Qualcomm’s venture arm among others. Total funding now stands at a healthy $280 million.

Lookout Founder John Hering (left) and CEO Jim Dolce

Lookout has won consumer marketshare — it claims 50 million users via deals that preload its service with AT&T, T-mobile and Sprint phones. Now it hopes to replicate that success inside business accounts where protecting corporate data is a key concern and where traditional security vendors and newbies alike have been challenged.

“The market opportunity is huge, so as you can imagine there are a lot of legacy vendors like Symantec and new entrants entering the space,” Lookout CEO Jim Dolce said via email.

The thirst for better enterprise device-and-apps security has driven all sorts of activity, including VMware’s purchase of Airwatch last year, and a raft of deals in the identity and access management (IAM) arena, the latest of which were IBM’s recent serial purchases of Lighthouse and Crossideas.

In March, Lookout brought in Dolce, a former Juniper Networks and Akamai executive aboard as CEO and company founder John Hering became chairman.